REGIONAL REPORT Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA CHRIS ROPER

January 17, 2012 & THE MEDIA: www.kas.de/mediaafrica www.kas.de LOOKING BACK TO 2011, LOOKING AHEAD TO 2012

EXCLUSIVE – CHRIS ROPER ON MAJOR STORIES, DIGITAL LANDSCAPES, AND

THE BATTLE FOR MEDIA FREEDOM

There were many important stories in the deflected from reporting the news, to cam- South African media in 2011, but perhaps paigning to protect the right to continue do- the biggest story was the media itself. ing so. The beginning of 2012 sees the South Af- rican media, and by extension, the state The main assault on media freedom was the of democracy in South Africa, in a parlous National Assembly’s passing of the Protec- position that many see as boding ill for tion of State Information Bill, more popu- the future of the country. This state of af- larly referred to as the Secrecy Bill, in No- fairs informed the way the media worked, vember of 2011. First mooted in 2008 by and the types of stories that were pub- then Minister of Intelligence , lished. It also highlighted the growing im- the Bill was designed to replace an apart- portance of digital media. For citizens, as heid-era law governing the classification of a way to continue to make their voices state secrets. Kasrils intended to craft legis- heard, and to access information neces- lation to protect state secrets, but at the sary to a civil society intent on being the same time uphold the constitutional princi- watchdogs of good governance and con- pal of transparent governance. It included a stitutional values; and for the media, it ‘public interest’ provision, allowing whistle- drove home how vital digital platforms blowers to reveal information that was de- are, and will be in future, in the preserva- monstrably in the public interest, without tion of the freedom of the press. fear of legal reprisal.

THE SECRECY BILL AND THE BAT- Crucially, the Bill eventually proposed by TLE FOR MEDIA FREEDOM government removed the public interest provision, and provided for penalties of up In 2011, the media came under sustained to 25 years incarceration for whistleblowers. attack from the government and the court It also gave any state organ the power to of public opinion. It also contrived to stab classify any document as secret, meaning itself in the back with a myopic, narcissistic that the potential for covering up corruption response to infringements on the freedom would be immense. of the press, both actual and imagined, as well as some unfortunate lapses in editorial THE SECRECY BILL: CIVIL SOCIETY rigor. Major pressure was put on media RESPONDS structures because of this combination of negative propaganda and legitimate criti- Understandably, there was much outrage at cism.The result was a publishing climate in the proposed Bill, from a range of interested which some news organisations were anec- parties. Besides media organisations like dotally considered to be practicing a form of the South African National Editors Forum, self-censorship, and where attention was detractors included luminaries from within

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Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. the ruling African National Congress party. tors Forum’s chairman, Mondli Makhanya, Shortly before his death in June of 2011, said “This incredible plan which was ap- SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA struggle hero , a former gov- proved by the cabinet means the govern- CHRIS ROPER ernment Minister, urged Parliament to re- ment wishes to bribe newspapers to become think the Bill and asked South Africans to its propagandists, or even its mouthpieces, January 17, 2012 join him in rejecting the legislation. by publishing only the government’s view of news and affairs.” www.kas.de/mediaafrica www.kas.de In general, the media’s relationship with the All to no avail. The Bill was passed in Sep- political power players could be encapsu- tember of 2011, after what many saw as a lated by this example. There was much an- sham process of public consultation. For ex- tagonism, mainly although not exclusively ample, the Mail & Guardian reported that from the government’s side. Government “consultations were still going ahead the communications’ chief Jimmy Manyi, for ex- night before the Bill went to Parliament. In ample, was quoted as saying that the me- Mangaung, 100 residents turned up for the dia, and especially print media, is “hostile hearing but the ANC MP who was meant to towards government”. conduct the hearing failed to appear. In- stead, fliers about the Bill were handed out, The story, covered in detail a choir entertained the crowd and then food below, was another case study for the rela- was served.” tionship between the media and politi- cians.The presidential spokesperson actually AN ANTAGONISTIC RELATIONSHIP: went so far as to enlist the aid of the direc- GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA torate for priority crime investigation (known as the ), to investigate the State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele Mail & Guardian newspaper’s possession of provided a representative example of the documents relating to his involvement in state’s propaganda attack on groups oppos- the Arms Deal corruption scandal. The De- ing the Bill. He claimed that groups against mocratic Alliance's spokesperson on police the Bill were "local proxies of foreign spies", matters, Dianne Kohler Barnard, com- causing Ronnie Kasrils, a previous Minister mented that "It would seem that Mac Maha- for Intelligence Services, to describe his raj is on his own mission and it is very sad statements as "disgraceful" and "inflamma- the police and Hawks are being used by tory", and to suggest that they would en- politicians to fight their own battles -- courage members of the intelligence ser- something that should never happen." vices to "adopt a mindset already noted for excessive secrecy, exaggerated fears and THE PASSING OF THE SECRECY paranoia". BILL

South African media and especially print Also incensed by the passing of the Secrecy media (where most of the investigative Bill was , a former General Sec- journalism takes place) is heir to the self- retary of the Congress of South African same institutional ills as the media of Trade Unions, and a former member of the Europe and America. In an economic cli- ANC’s National Executive Council. He also mate where media houses are losing read- served as Minister of Post, Telecommunica- ers to digital media, and struggling to sub- tions, and Broadcasting, and in then- stitute declining print advertising revenue president ’s office as Minis- with digital revenue, the margins are tight. ter Responsible for the Reconstruction and In light of this, many saw Government Development Program. spokesman Jimmy Manyi’s statement that the government, one of the biggest adver- Naidoo went so far as to draw a shocking tisers, would favour with advertising reve- comparison between the current govern- nue the media that reported positively on ment and the old government. government activity. The South African Edi- There can be few more insulting analogies,

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Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. especially coming from one of your own. On social networks. YouTube, the site that pos- a current affairs website, the Daily Maver- sibly does most to allow citizens to evade SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ick, he posed the question: “Are we drifting the censorship and control of their govern- CHRIS ROPER back to an era of apartheid-style censor- ments, and to present to the world alterna- ship, with the new apparatchiks deciding tive information that would ordinarily be January 17, 2012 what our thoughts and debates should be?“ suppressed, is the fourth most popular web- site used by South Africans. Facebook is the www.kas.de/mediaafrica Another who compared the current govern- second most popular site, and Twitter www.kas.de ment to apartheid was Nobel Laureate comes in at number seven. Archbishop . In response to the government refusing a visa for the Dalai The most popular social network in South Lama to visit South Africa for Tutu’s birth- Africa is the homegrown MXit platform, with day celebrations, ostensibly because of around 10 million active users. The quasi- pressure from China, Tutu went one step social network that is Blackberry BBM, fa- further than Naidoo. He accused the ANC of mously used by those involved in the riots being "worse than the apartheid govern- cum social uprising in England in August of ment", and said “I am warning you, one day 2011, also showed strong growth in 2011, we will start praying for the defeat of the rivaled only by Twitter. Both those networks ANC." are mobile phone based, playing exactly to the strengths of the South African techno- In the same column on the Daily Maverick, logical landscape. Naidoo hinted at the measures that South Africans need to take, and will take, to According to a study by the reputable re- counter the erosion of our hard-won consti- search firm World Wide Worx,”39% of urban tutional rights. “Just as such tactics failed to South Africans and 27% of rural users are silence us in the past and spawned a grass- now browsing the Internet on their roots rebellion of alternative media, what phones.... This means that at least 6 million our current leaders should realise is that the South Africans now have Internet access on rise of the internet and the powerful tools of their phones.” According to Arthur Gold- social media make imposing a veil of se- stuck of World Wide Worx, mobile penetra- crecy in South Africa, or the world, impossi- tion in South Africa is at 112% (with pene- ble today.” tration defined as active SIM cards), and 80% of South Africans use cellphones. In a year where Africa saw revolutions in Cheap smartphones are coming to South Tunisia and Egypt, both typed as social me- Africa as well: technology analyst Nick dia revolutions, as well as the overthrow of Jones, speaking at the Gartner Symposium the Libyan government, Naidoo’s point was on Innovation in 2011, predicted that trenchant. It’s especially so given the digital smartphone penetration in South Africa is landscape in South Africa, where mobile likely to reach 80% by 2014. phones are ubiquitous, and social media and social networking at an advanced stage The stumbling block to internet access in of development. South African has always been the exorbi- tant cost of connectivity. But this is set to THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE IN change. According to the Mail & Guardian, SOUTH AFRICA: SOCIAL MEDIA consumers can look forward to much AND INTERNET ACCESS cheaper broadband prices in 2012, with many new undersea cables set to come There are over 4 million Facebook users in online within the next 18 months. “Talk in South Africa, for example, with 33% of the industry is of a 10% to 20% drop in lo- those in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket, cal prices, which are regarded as being and 31% in the 25 - 34 year old group. among the highest in the world.” The Sea- Twitter is still relatively small, with just over com cable, which launched in 2009, in- a million registered users but, coming off a creased South Africa’s broadband capacity low base, shows the most growth of all the

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Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. by 380% - the new cables will increase ca- where South African media rectitude was pacity by a further 360%. crucial to a debate around freedom of the SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA press, the News of the World example was CHRIS ROPER These connectivity issues are crucial to the extremely damaging. development of media in South Africa, as January 17, 2012 well as being extremely important to the In my opening paragraph, I made mention tools of civil society. As Naidoo pointed out, of the media’s myopic, narcissistic response www.kas.de/mediaafrica if the South African government tightens to infringements on the freedom of the www.kas.de control of freedom of expression and the press. Much of the time, the media cast it- press, the internet is going to be the arena self as the potential injured party because in which civil rights activists take the strug- of the passing of the Secrecy Bill, not gle for access to information. spending enough time explaining to South Africans that their constitutional rights were THE MAJOR NEWS STORIES OF being taken away, and that they, and their 2011 democracy, would be the real victim.

With such an important struggle going on, Other critics of the Secrecy Bill, such as the there was still time for some major stories Congress of South African Trade Unions' to be broken. But here an inevitable thing general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, didn’t happened. People exposed as corrupt were make the same mistake. Vavi pointed out able to play off anti-media sentiments that it wasn't just the media who were un- propagated by government and others, and der threat -- South Africa's workers had polarise the South African public in a way much to lose in a society where exposing congenial to their defense. Instead of de- corruption was criminalised. The media did bating whether someone was guilty as touch on this aspect regularly, and the charged, a large amount of public discourse Right2Know campaign group made it a cen- revolved around the media as self- tral part of their message. But there was no interested mouthpieces for various anti- coherent message reflected in the media’s government groups. coverage of the issue, with a concomitant fragmenting of the message to readers. For example, the Mail & Guardian newspa- per was forced to suppress a report about Leaving the Secrecy Bill aside, other top the lies that presidential spokesperson Mac stories in 2011 inevitably included many Maharaj told the about his part in about Julius Malema, the leader of the ANC allegedly accepting bribes as part of the Youth League. In a story in 2011, I com- Arms Deal corruption scandal. Maharaj ac- mented that, if Julius Malema didn’t exist, cused the Mail & Guardian of trying "to hide the media would have had to invent him. its complicity in criminal acts by raising the For South Africans, he is the litmus test spectre of a threat to media freedom and against which politics and popular opinion is invoking fears of censorship". By eliding the necessarily measured. An important story, media’s concern with the Secrecy Bill with co-authored by Malema’s biographer Fiona its attempts to publish stories, the waters Forde, exposed how Julius Malema con- were muddied. Many readers believed that trolled the tender process in the province of objections to the Secrecy Bill were merely Limpopo through an alleged system of brib- attempts by media to evade legitimate re- ery. But these revelations were overshad- strictions on the way they practiced busi- owed by the bitter fight between Malema ness. and the ANCYL’s parent body, the ANC, which resulted in the populist Malema’s Maharaj also drew on the global industry shock suspension from the ANC on discipli- trope of 2011, when he warned the Mail & nary grounds. Guardian to be aware of "the consequences the use of unlawfully and illegally obtained Also revealing was the story of President information had on a publication such as the ’s attacks on the judiciary, [British] News of the World". In a year where he suggested that the Constitutional

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Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. Court was trying to usurp the government’s functional 17 years after the demise of exclusive right to policy-making. He at- apartheid. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA tempted to assert that “The powers con- CHRIS ROPER ferred on the courts cannot be regarded as superior to the powers resulting from a January 17, 2012 mandate given by the people in a popular vote. We must not get the sense that there www.kas.de/mediaafrica are those who wish to co-govern the coun- www.kas.de try through the courts, when they have not won the popular vote during elections.” City Press responded to this by acerbically com- menting, “it is hard to understand why the president finds it difficult to grasp that, in a constitutional -democracy, it is the Constitu- tion that is supreme, not the numbers.”

Zuma also attempted to extend the term of Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, perceived by some as pro-Zuma. The Constitutional Court squashed this attempt, a victory for the preservation of democracy, but possibly one that highlights civil society’s failure to get the Secrecy Bill squashed in the same way.

CONCLUSION: “WAITING FOR A REVOLUTION”

This leaves the South African media land- scape in an intriguing position going into 2012. If the Secrecy Bill negatively impacts on the media’s ability to act as society’s watchdog on government corruption, possi- ble lack of service delivery, and general mismanagement, will civil society start to explore the avenues provided by the rela- tive anonymity of the internet? If 2011 set the pattern, are we to expect further at- tempts by elements of the ruling party to infringe on South Africans’ constitutional rights, both in order to bolster the waning popularity of the ANC, and to allow factional elements within the party to fight internal political battles without being subjected to public scrutiny?

However it plays out, it is clear that battle lines have been drawn between a loose coa- lition of the media and civil groups intent on rigorous accountability from government, and a government that sees the media as an irritating obstacle to its political ambi- tions and attempts to create a functioning society in an environment that is still dys-